[The Invisible Force] Accessing Spiritual Direction

[Guest guest]

FW: [ASpiritOfJoy] Accessing Spiritual DirectionAccessing Spiritual Direction

by

Wayne W. Dyer

Can you make a

flower grow? Probably your first response is, " Such a simple thing to do.

Plant a seed in some dirt, provide sunlight and water and in time a flower will

emerge. The proof is that there are millions upon millions of flowers sprouting

all over the world at this moment! "

That is certainly true. However,

I am inviting you to reread the question and consider who or what generates the

life that makes a flower grow, because the who or what is the source of

solutions to all our problems.

Who or what causes the flower

seed to blossom, and the tiny embryo to become a human being? Who or what grows

our fingernails and beats our heart even as we sleep? Who or what is behind the

movement of the winds, which we feel but never see? What is this force that

keeps the planets in place and hurls our world through the galaxy at a

breathtaking speed? These questions have been asked for as long as humans have

had the ability to contemplate their existence.

Spirit is what I have chosen to

call the formless, invisible energy which is the source and sustenance of life

on this planet. This force, no matter the name we give it, can solve every

problem that we encounter. There is a spiritual solution to every problem, we

only need to learn how to access it.

I first read

about these steps when I immersed myself in How to Know God: The Yoga Aphorisms of

Patanjali, written

sometime between the fourth century B.C. and the fourth century A.D. These

spiritual disciplines and techniques were written to enable a person to achieve

the ultimate unitive knowledge of God.

I trust you will discover for

yourself that these things you have come to label as problems have a ready

solution available to you right now, in this moment, in that world we are

calling spirit.

The First of Three Steps

Recognition: It may appear

obvious that one must first recognize something before applying it, but this is

actually the most troublesome step in moving toward spiritual illumination.

Recognizing the availability of

an invisible force that can be put to use in solving a problem, requires

overcoming a great deal of our early training and conditioning. Have you ever

thought about the limitations we experience when we identify ourselves as only

a physical body in material existence?

For instance, do you believe

there is only one kind of power or knowledge, which relies on your sensory or

intellectual faculties to solve problems? Most of us have been taught this is

true and that all of the information that has been acquired is the total

inventory of options available to us. This is a conditioned attitude of

nonrecognition of our divine connection to spiritual problem solving.

In this state of nonrecognition

we believe that medicines, herbs, surgery, and doctors are responsible for all

healing, or that improving one's financial picture involves the exclusive

application of working hard, studying, interviewing, and sending out rTsumTs.

In essence, nonrecognition leads us to believe that our knowledge is limited to

those kinds of phenomena, which are explainable through our sensory functions.

Patanjali described a kind of

knowledge or power that is not accessed solely through the material or sensory

world. Recognition that this power exists and is always available is the first

step in activating it. However, it is not accessed solely through the teachings

of others, or through ancient writings, just as we do not dream because someone

teaches or writes about dreaming. Recognizing, like dreaming, is something we

access by making an inner and outer commitment to our ability to recognize.

For example, in this first step

when you are faced with a problem, I suggest you create a personal affirmation

such as: " I may not know exactly how to access the spiritual solution

here, but I fully recognize that a spiritual solution exists. " By

recognition of its existence, we invite the power to be known by us.

As physical beings we can make a

flower grow in the sense of the response to the question in the opening

sentence of this book. But if we are thoughtful we realize that we cannot even

begin to unravel the mystery of the invisible force that initiates life. Yet it

is in this omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent spiritual world that we find the

solutions to all our problems. This spiritual force is everywhere and in every

thing and every one. When we incorporate the first step, recognition, we begin

the process of accessing this all-knowing power.

[innerSelf Editor's Note: We

would have loved to present all three steps here, but were only able to get

permission to reprint this first step of the text from the book.]

This article

is excerpted from There's A Spiritual Solution to Every Problem, by Wayne W.

Dyer, ?2001. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission of the publisher,

Harper Publishers http://www.harpercollins.com

Info/Order this

book.More books by this author.

About the Author

Wayne W. Dyer is

the best-selling author of over twenty books and

has a doctorate in counseling psychology. He lectures across the country to

groups numbering in the thousands and appears regularly on radio and

television. He holds a doctorate in counseling psychology from Wayne State

University, and has taught at St. 's University in New York. He lives in southern

Florida. Visit his website at www.WayneDyerBooks.com.